Cool. Never heard of the guy but he has a nice way with words. Especially if you ever played football for even five minutes or are really excited it's about to be back.

Yes, that was a great read. I got so engrossed in it when my ESPN Mag came my legs fell asleep on the toilet...perhaps I've said too much.

Other things:

-I like the CFL. The NFL should definitely go to the CFL dimensions field and allow motion towards the line like the CFL. No need to half ass this offense centric NFL, might as well go all the way. Keep the 4 downs though.

-the NFL is playing hardball with these refs and they should get the real refs back before the season starts...but...I heard Peter King say the refs are looking for a 20% pay increase AND they want to keep the retirement packages they had in the previous deal even though no other NFL employees still have that plan. The refs need to bend a little...personally I don't think the regular refs are that much better then the scabs. Better yeah, but not by so much.

--I like Russel Wilson. I liked him when he played here at NC State. But the Seahawks aren't going to win that division and I think the NFC is too tough for them to be a Wild Card. That means they're in that clump of the NFL that exists between 6-10 and 10-6. Not good enough for a real shot at the SB and not bad enough for high draft picks. Not a good place to be.

Indeed. Full weekends of games that end 75-3 are the height of excitement.

Agreed. One thing I'm hoping for from a playoff eventually is that, if you only need to win your conference to get in, teams won't be as afraid to play big opponents. There's still the injury issue, but no more major penalty for losing a solid game to a great out-of-conference opponent would certainly help.

Indeed. Full weekends of games that end 75-3 are the height of excitement.

Agreed. One thing I'm hoping for from a playoff eventually is that, if you only need to win your conference to get in, teams won't be as afraid to play big opponents. There's still the injury issue, but no more major penalty for losing a solid game to a great out-of-conference opponent would certainly help.

Michigan playing Alabama is a good step in this direction. I would like to see an SEC team come play in the north in November, you know where football was invented.

Indeed. Full weekends of games that end 75-3 are the height of excitement.

Agreed. One thing I'm hoping for from a playoff eventually is that, if you only need to win your conference to get in, teams won't be as afraid to play big opponents. There's still the injury issue, but no more major penalty for losing a solid game to a great out-of-conference opponent would certainly help.

Michigan playing Alabama is a good step in this direction. I would like to see an SEC team come play in the north in November, you know where football was invented.

I think the crappiness of FBS teams' schedules is often overrated. Alabama hasn't only played Michigan. They played Penn State each of the last two years and had opening week games against Clemson and Virginia Tech before that. Florida gets a lot of crap for never playing outside of the state, but when you're playing Florida State every year (and let's not forget that the Seminoles finished in the Top 5 every year from 1987-2000) that's pretty forgivable. Ohio State and Texas played a home-and-home in 2005 and 2006 when they were #1 and #2. Oregon played Boise twice a few years later. Oklahoma scheduled TCU and BYU in back-to-back years. The top teams have been playing good teams pretty regularly, it's the lower tier BCS teams (your Minnesotas, Indianas, and Mississippi States) that have the crap schedules.

CatfoodSpork:Does anyone know if there's a way to prevent autoplay on the ESPN website? It does it to me every single time, even though I always turn autoplay to off.

Quit clicking on their Links and rell everyone else to quit clicking on their links until they quit being retarded with autoplay. ESPN no longer has an ombudsman on staff to ignore so you cant contact the ompudsman any longer about ESPMs media crimes. But they have hired The Poynter Review Project to ignore instead of an ombudsman.According to ESPN...If you have comments or questions regarding ESPN's coverage of news, issues or events, please send them directly to the Poynter Review Project using the form at this link

At the snap of the ball, the offensive and defensive lines ought to drop to their backs and engage in leg-wrestling until the whistle blows. The Receivers and DBs could take a casual stroll around the field for a bit, and the Quarterback and Running Back could play catch for a few moments before the QB takes a knee.

Rent Party:Well then since they have identical pre-season records, why don't you go into detail on why this year's 3-0 "breakouts" is differentiated from the 2009 "sub 500" squad.

The things you look for in preseason are not wins/losses (as you said before, only an idiot would look at that and say it's important). You're looking to see how the first team plays against other teams. Teams like the Browns have gotten some of their preseason wins when they're keeping their starters in against backups. This year, it's been a case where they've been beating everyone throughout the game.

Other differences: 2009 was an old, veteran team - we already knew their ceiling, and they were coming off a 5-win season. This year, they're coming off a 7-9 season with an injured Tarvaris Jackson at QB most of the season. They were roughly .500 with INJURED TARVARIS JACKSON. Now they have two QBs who look better than Jackson when he's healthy. They haven't taken any steps back and they've taken steps forward at QB, on the line, and in the WR corps. So there's another reason for optimism. Have you actually WATCHED the games? You can't tell anything from the box score, but if you've watched the games, they've been completely ragdolling other teams.

If you go back into Wilson's history, he looks like a great prospect - All-Conference in two different conferences (reason he switched conferences: his coach told him he didn't want him back if he tried playing baseball, not any negative reason), already has his Master's degree, known for making good decisions and not turning the ball over, wants to pass but is more than capable of making huge plays with his feet, learned two different offenses in college (the second one in three weeks) - he clearly already has command of the offense. We already know, based on everyone's comments before the draft, that he would have graded as comparable to Luck/Griffin if he'd been 3-4 inches taller. After seeing Drew Brees' performance, only a retard would agree that short guys can't succeed in the NFL. Wilson set the NCAA record for passing efficiency and was second in Big 10 history in passing TDs in a season. You know the only guy with more? Drew Brees.

Other things to look at: 2009 offense was led by injured Matt Hasselbeck and Seneca Wallace, with Julius Jones (who was a horrible signing from the second he was signed - the only team he ever was good against was the Seahawks) and Deion Branch as their top WR. They've upgraded at every position since that team.

Most of the preseason scores were from guys who didn't make the team in 2009. This year, Wilson (starter) has been posting all of 'em. The defense is a hell of a lot better than the 2009 squad.

Furthermore, statistics have shown that teams don't tend to consistently have bad luck in close games. Last year the 49ers and Cardinals were abnormally good in 1 TD-or-less games. The Seahawks were 1-7 in similar games. In 2008, the Seahawks scored 98 fewer points than their opponents. In 2009? 110 fewer. Their defense sucked.

In 2010? The Seahawks outscored their opponents for the first time since the Shaun Alexander era.

There are myriad reasons to be excited about the 2012 Seahawks. The only reasons to not be excited are a) the schedule, and b) they're the Seahawks, so they'll probably all get crippled.

Babboonrash:Mercutio74: stir22: you know, i find CFL football pretty damn good. definitely more wide open. love those long endzones, and 120 yard field. i wish we had more access to it down here in the lower 48. i'd love to go to one in person.

CFL is a ton of fun. Hell, I'll even watch Edmonton play Saskatchewan. You yanks had your chance though, we expanded into the US, but no one watched.

That being said, it wasn't marketed properly. It really is a different kind of football. Speed over size. Passing over running. High scoring (but usually close) games. Plus the Grey Cup game is usually very entertaining and contested right down to the final minutes. In a way it's kind of the same difference in feel between the NHL and International Hockey.

Under the current scenario, the CFL will never rival the NFL. As it was mentioned before, it's 2 very different sports. Only when and if the CFL could ever be able to contract some high talent draft type players, would it be able to compete (yes run on...) The Canadian beer league of football is littered with NFL rejects, has beens, and never coulds. If broadcasted here in the states, you know... where all those advertising dollars are generated... the sport would still be little sister of the NCAA.

And don't fool yourself about the beer league being improperly marketed. We already got a novelty football sport here... it's called Arena League.

Yup, that was the CFL's problem in the US... it was viewed as a novelty, and that wasn't going to change. It only really worked in Baltimore, and probably then mostly as a giant middle finger to the NFL, which very quickly fixed that mistake.

Fun fact though: In 1991, the Toronto Argonauts signed Rocket Ismael to what was at the time the richest football contract in history. He won the 1991 Grey Cup MVP, then flamed out of the league the following year when he jump-stomped an opposing player's head during a scuffle.

birdboy2000:Locking out the players was bad enough. But hey, it's millionaires vs. billionaires.

Locking out the refs is just awful. I'm not sure if I'll bother watching the NFL this year - between the owners' disgusting greed and their willingness to put out a substandard product by abandoning competent officiating, I don't want to give them better ratings.